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COURSE INFORMATION
Course Title: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Code Course Type Regular Semester Theory Practice Lab Credits ECTS
PIR 162 B 2 4 0 0 4 5
Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) NA
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours: M.Sc. Dea Haxhiu dbashkurti@epoka.edu.al , Monday 10:00 - 12:00
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours: NA
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours: NA
Language: English
Compulsory/Elective: Compulsory
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered) Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years)
Classroom and Meeting Time:
Code of Ethics: Code of Ethics of EPOKA University
Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement: N/A
Course Description: This class introduces 1st year students to the basic ideas and theories of public administration. Whether we need government or not, what is bureaucracy and whether it is a bad thing, how can we reform the public sector, what tools does the government use in order to reach its goals and how does the decision-making process takes in the public sector are among the primary questions the course addresses. The course will cover basic concepts like public vs. private organizations, central and local public administration (organization and functioning), governmental reform, and public policy. Last but not least, the course approaches the problem of public sector ethics, corruption, its causes and consequences and the most common alternatives for fighting against it. A special attention will be granted to sunshine measures and whistle blowing, as tools for fighting corrupt behavior.
Course Objectives: (1)To introduce key concepts and models of public policy making as they relate to the theory and practice of public administration and organizational management. (2) To strengthen academic and interpretive skills needed by individuals to function as effective participants in the policy making process. (3) To develop appropriate thinking skills needed to critically assess and evaluate institutional performance.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE
1 Bureaucracy
2 Public Administration
3 Public Management
4 Leadership
5 Efficient and effective government
6 Human resources
7 Implementing public administration
COURSE OUTLINE
Week Topics
1 Introduction, Syllabus and Requirements
2 Big democracy, Big Bureaucracy. An analysis of bureaucracy and government as basics to a society. Chapter 1
3 The threads of Organizations: Theories. Organizations are different creatures to different people, organizations are “defined” according to the contexts and perspectives peculiar to the person doing the defining. Chapter 3
4 The Fibers of Organizations: People. “Fibers”—the woof, weft, and tensile strength of organizations—describes people in organizations. Those people who enter government careers have high public service motivation (i.e., the desire to serve society in a secular context). Chapter 5
5 The Public's Information Resource. In an age in which information technology (IT) saturates society, it is worth recalling the little-known fact that the public sector has long been crucial in inventing IT’s diverse devices. Chapter 6.
6 The Constant Quest: Efficient and Effective Governance. All governments have issues of efficiency and effectiveness. Chapter 7
7 Public finance and Budgeting Governments. The basis for governments’ budgets is public finance, or the raising by governments of revenues that are then expended to fund public policies. Chapter 8
8 Managing Human Capital in the Public and Nonprofit Sector. Personnel administration, or personnel management, is the planning and policymaking for, and managing of, employees, and is limited to “internal” processes, such as compensation. Chapter 9
9 Midt
10 Understanding and Improving Public Policy. Public policy is a course of action adopted and pursued by government. Public policy analysis is the study of how governmental policies are made and implemented, and the application of available knowledge to governmental policies for the purpose of improving their formulation and implementation. Chapter 10
11 Intersectoral Administration. Government’s source. Sourcing is the selection of an entity and a method that public administra tors judge to be the most appropriate and efficient for delivering a public program or service, or implementing a public policy. Chapter 11.
12 Intergovernmental Administration. The administration of a “single” domestic policy often involves a pastiche of public administrators, and this is known as intergovernmental relations, or the series of financial, legal, political, and administrative relationships established among all units of government that possess varying degrees of authority and jurisdictional autonomy. Chapter 12
13 Toward a Bureaucratic Ethic. So long as there were “principles” of public administration, ethics were irrelevant to its practice; “science,” on which the field was purportedly based, is, after all, neither ethical nor unethical. By the mid-twentieth century, as scholars reconsidered this paradigm, their views on the legitimacy of ethics began to alter, and today a concern with ethical behavior occupies a prominent place in the field. Chapter 13
14 Students Presentations.
Prerequisite(s): N/A
Textbook(s): Hughes, Owen E. Public Management and Administration. 5th Edition. (Palgrave, 2018) ISBN: 9781137560070. Shafritz, Jay M., Russell, E. W., Borick, Ch. P.,& Hyde, A. C. Introducing Public Administration. 9th Edition. (Routledge, 2017) ISBN: 9781315619439.
Additional Literature: N/A
Laboratory Work: N/A
Computer Usage: N/A
Others: No
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
1 Understand the various models and theories of policy making that are used by public and private sector organizations to formulate decisions and implement those decisions within their domains
2 Function more effectively as participants in policy and decision making processes within public and private organizations.
3 Critically assess the way policies are made in the organizations in which they work and identify alternative policy making models that will change or improve organizational decision making.
4 Participate more fully as citizens rather than mere residents in the public and private decision making processes.
COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES
(Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)
No Program Competencies Cont.
Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years) Program
1 Having and using advanced knowledge and comprehension supported by textbooks including actual knowledge in political sciences and international relations literature, materials and the other scientific resources. 5
2 Analyzing data, ideas and concepts of current political issues and international relations, determining complex events and topics, making discussions and developing new suggestions in accordance with researches. 5
3 Having knowledge and thought about actual topics and problems together with their historical, social and cultural aspects. 5
4 Introducing those who are interested in politics and international events with the topics of Political Science and IR and teaching clearly the problems and the types of solutions. 5
5 Improving skills of working together with the main social science disciplines and other disciplines which are related to Political Science and International Relations. 5
6 Improving critical thinking and skills in making research independently. 5
7 Developing solutions about the problems and conflicts which are common in national and international arena. 4
8 Improving skills for leadership and research and analyze capacity of those who is responsible with national and international ones. 5
9 Knowing any foreign language enough to communicate with colleagues and understand actual researches and articles. 3
10 Gaining IT skills to use computer and technology) in order to reach actual knowledge. 2
11 Gaining skills to follow societal, scientific and ethic values during collecting, interpreting, conducting of data related to social and political developments. 4
12 Having consciousness about human rights and environment. 4
13 Gaining the skills to follow actual developments and pursue long-life learning. 5
COURSE EVALUATION METHOD
Method Quantity Percentage
Midterm Exam(s)
1
30
Quiz
2
5
Term Paper
1
10
Final Exam
1
35
Attendance
15
Total Percent: 100%
ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)
Activities Quantity Duration(Hours) Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours) 16 4 64
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice) 16 2 32
Mid-terms 1 13 13
Assignments 0
Final examination 1 16 16
Other 0
Total Work Load:
125
Total Work Load/25(h):
5
ECTS Credit of the Course:
5
CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER

The course will provide an overview of the field of public administration by focusing on its development and importance in modern government operations at the local, state, and federal levels. You should think of this course as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with the basic principles, concerns, and methods of public administration. These will appear in the other courses you take in public administration, though often in greater depth. Here, your objective should be to take a bird's eye view of the entire terrain of PA: a view to which you will periodically return in order to place your other classes in a broader context.
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